AUTHORS

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Sir Robert Anderson

As regards the date
of the Ministry and of the Passion, Luke iii. 1 is an end of controversy with
all who reject the nightmare system of interpreting Scripture. The 15th year of
the Emperor Tiberius is as certain a date as the 15th year of Queen Victoria.
He began to reign on the 19th August A.D. 14. "And no single case has ever
been, or can be, produced in which the years of Tiberius were reckoned in any
other manner."
But Gibbon tells us that "The Roman Emperors investe...

Professor Driver acknowledges "the possibility that
Nabunahid may have sought to strengthen his position by marrying a daughter of
Nebuchadnezzar, in which case the latter might be spoken of as Belshazzar's
father (= grandfather, by Hebrew usage)." And the author of the Ancient
Monarchies, our best historical authority here, tells us that Nabonidus
(Nabunahid) "had associated with him in the government his son Belshazzar or
Bel-shar-uzur, the grandson of the great Nebuchadnez...

"The philological peculiarities of the book" constitute
the next ground of the critic's attack on Daniel. "The Hebrew" (he declares)
"is pronounced by the majority of experts to be of a later character than the
time assumed for it." The Aramaic also is marked by idioms of a later period,
familiar to the Palestinian Jews.' And not only are Persian words employed in
the book, but it contains certain Greek words, which, it is said, could not
have been in use in Babylon during the...

The critics claim a competency to judge whether this
portion or that of the canon of Scripture be divinely inspired, and in the
exercise of this faculty they have decided that certain passages of Daniel give
proof that the book could not have a divine sanction. Their dicta on this
subject will have weight with us just in proportion to our ignorance of
Scripture. The opening chapters of the book which follows Daniel in the canon
present far greater difficulties in this respect,...

"The existence of violent errors as to matters with which
a contemporary must have been familiar, at once refutes all pretence of
historic authenticity in a book professing to have been written by an author in
the days and country which he describes." "By no possibility could the book
have been written in the days of the Babylonian exile." Thus it is that Dean
Farrar disposes of the Book of Daniel. Such dogmatism, while it will surprise
and distress the thoughtful and well-inf...

To have answered Dean Farrar's Book of Daniel may appear
to some but a cheap and barren victory. For they will urge that if the attack
on Daniel were entrusted to abler hands, the issue would be different. But the
suggestion is untenable. While the passing years are bringing to light from
time to time fresh evidence to confirm the authenticity of the book, the
treasury of the critics is exhausted. They have no abler, no more trusted,
champion than Professor Driver of Oxford; y...

As the solution of the problem of the Seventy Weeks is my
personal contribution to the Daniel controversy, I may be pardoned for dealing
with the subject here in greater detail, albeit this involves some repetition.
It is all the more necessary, moreover, because in his recent work Professor
Driver has adopted the laboured efforts of the foreign sceptics to evade the
Messianic reference of the vision. Indeed, his exposition of the passage
reminds us of that sort of dream in wh...

In view of the proofs adduced in the preceding chapter, it
may now be accepted as a demonstrated fact that the unit of the prophetic era
of the seventy weeks is the luni-solar year of the ancient world. Our next
inquiry must be directed to ascertaining the epoch of that era.
The
language of the vision is simple and clear: "From the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince, shall be
seven weeks and threescore and two weeks." H...

It will be obvious to the intelligent and thoughtful that
unless the conclusions recorded in the preceding chapter can in some way be
disproved or got rid of, there is an end of the Daniel controversy. The reader,
therefore, will be interested to know what reply Professor Driver has to give
to them.
After noticing the solution of the Seventy Weeks proposed by
Julius Africanus, the father of Christian chronologers, he proceeds "This view
has been revived recently, in a slig...

The opening statement of the Book of Daniel is here
selected for special notice for two reasons. First, because the attack upon it
would be serious, if sustained. And secondly and chiefly, because it is a
typical specimen of the methods of the critics; and the inquiry may convince
the reader of their unfitness to deal with any question of evidence. I am not
here laying down the law, but seeking to afford materials to enable the reader
to form his own opinion.
Dan. i. I rea...